What I read in 2025

I absolutely love to read. I’d much rather read than scroll social media or watch TV. I always have a book with me in case of emergenices. Who knows when I might need to wait somewhere for a few minutes? It would be terrible to be stranded with nothing to read.

I read entirely for pleasure and escapism. I rarely read non-fiction and I don’t read to educate myself. I don’t challenge myself to read a certain number of books a year or to read certain genres or authors. I read entirely to relax. The books I choose tend to be thrillers, detective stories and modern literary novels, but I will read the occasional bit of romantic fiction and a few biographies.

2025 was a good year of reading for me. It started off slowly – with The Skeleton Road and Butter both taking a long time to read. But then I went on a skiing holiday and read two whole books and started a third. In the end, I read six books and was halfway through my seventh by the end of January.

I had another busy month of reading with six books in April, when most of the books I read that month I couldn’t put down, and yet another month of reading six books in June and another in August. In fact, reading six books a month seemed to become my norm, after reading six books in September too – despite the fact that it took me two weeks to read Lisey’s Story.

This year, I read 66 books, which is eight more than I read in 2025 and definitely the most I’ve ever read in a year.

So what did I read in 2025?

• The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki
• How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
• The Truth About Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell
• The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
• Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
• Joan by Joan Hannington
• Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
• Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid
• The Retribution by Val McDermid
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith
• Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan
• We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
• Unruly by David Mitchell
• Darkside by Belinda Bauer
• Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer
• The Suspect by Rob Rinder
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
• When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen
• Cross and Burn by Val McDermid
• Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid
• The Household by Stacey Halls
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• In Memory of Us by Jacqueline Roy
• Cell by Stephen King
• Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
• Ted A Pawtobiography
• Insidious Intent by Val McDermid
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• Frank & Red by Matt Coyne
• How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid
• Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
• The Wilds by Sarah Pearse
• The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
• Never Flinch by Stephen King
• This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Betrayal of Thomas True by AJ West
• Before We Say Goodbye by Louise Candlish
• The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer
• The Days I Loved You Most by Amy Neff
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley
• The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale
• Fatal Witness by Robert Bryndza
• The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
• The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
• The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
• Frankie by Graham Norton
• All the best for the future by Greg James
• One Small Step by Paul Sinton-Hewitt
• Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
• Unmasking Lucy Letby by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz
• Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
• Et Tu, Cavapoo? by Mark Radcliffe
• How to Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin
• Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh
• From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough
• Death in the Arctic by Tom Hindle
• Songbirds by Christy Lefteri
• The Christmas Stocking Murders by Denzil Meyrick
• The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
• The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton
• Human Remains by Jo Callaghan
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman

I usually aim to identify at least five, but less than 10, favourite books of the year. This year, in no particular order, my favourite books were:

• The List of Suspicious Things
• Blue Sisters
• You Are Here
• Don’t Let Him In
• The Hallmarked Man
• The Impossible Fortune
• Other People’s Houses

You can see which other books almost made the cut for my favourite books list on my Favourite books Pinterest board.